What does your garden look like now?

[Cheryl Isaak]

Mine is mostly covered with the 5-6 inches of snow that fell yesterday. In a few hours, while I'm waiting at the bus stop, I'll take some shots of the stuff poking above the snow.

Cheryl

[Phisherman]

My veg garden is covered with leaves. We are having crazy weather. It was 75 degrees last Tuesday. I may have to mow the lawn in December! Last week I saw a light snow covering, but that was nearby, up in the Cumberland Mountains where I hiked.

[Cheryl Isaak]

Go for it, the memory will keep you warm when winter arrives for you. It is here for me! C

[sockiescat]

- - Mine is mostly covered with the 5-6 inches of snow that fel yesterday. In a few hours, while I'm waiting at the bus stop, I'll take some shot of the stuff poking above the snow.

Cheryl-

My veg garden is covered with leaves. We are having crazy weather It was 75 degrees last Tuesday. I may have to mow the lawn in December! Last week I saw a light snow covering, but that was nearby, up in the Cumberland Mountains where I hiked.-

Go for it, the memory will keep you warm when winter arrives for you It is here for me! C

mines covered in snow about 6 inches worth as well. been peekin through catalogues and online though to see whats new and what i migh like to try for this coming spring lol. take care and hope u get som good pics :). cyaaaaa, sockiescat ;)

-- sockiescat

[Bill]

Mine looks tired and in need of rest. The leaves are mostly down and it is beginning to look like winter. Blew off my roof today to just enable the water to run off with excursions to the left or right. Caught a flying squirrel in my attic first time in 35 years. Smacked him with my Japanese hatchet dull side. This in the dark as I like the guys and have worked on bird houses where when disturbed they came out and released their bladder on me. Glue traps with trashing about at

3:00 AM and chewing on stuff made me more of a monster than normal.

Bill

[John McGaw]

Mostly, things are covered by damp leaves but there are signs of life. For example I just noticed that the salmon-colored honeysuckle has just thrown a couple of new flowers. An antique rose I'm trying to preserve still has green leaves on it. And I saw some sort of very low growing weed beside the front walk with a tiny yellow flower on it. I wouldn't be surprised to see the periwinkle start blooming if this keeps up for much longer. Oh, and I noticed that some of my ferns out back are still hanging in there although the more tender ones like the "Japanese painted" have died back normally. If I start seeing crocus and hyacinth popping up I don't know what I'll do.

[SteveB]

Mine looks like a moonscape. Looking forward to spring, though.

Steve

[Phoon Hencman]

Same here but 9 to 10 inches...

[David Hare-Scott]

It's been warm and raining. The whole district looks like a picture postcard. The grass in the field is a foot high, the horses are all fat and cannot eat fast enough. The poppies are finished but the sunflowers and flowering shrubs are good, the flower garden is in need of weeding.

Vege garden is looking great, artichokes just finishing, asparagus 5-6 ft high waving in the breeze, eggplant coming on, tomatos growing like big fat weeds, corn 5ft high and lush. I have more squash and cucumbers than we or the neighbours can eat and the melons and pumpkins are fighting for territory. The tree frogs have each claimed their own clump of rhubarb now that the mating season is over.

I suspect the rabbits are breeding up too as Himself (the red kelpie) insists on going out each night and comes back puffing. He really likes his MacBunny Meals (TM). I had to kill a red-bellied black snake while mowing a few days ago, sad but you really cannot have them round the house as visitors, 'specially kids, may want to play with them. I am still sneaking a few strawberries as they ripen when I go out to work!

David

[Cheryl Isaak]

Where are you David, I may have to come for a visit. Early fall sounds heavenly. Why no red bellied snakes? They aren't poisonous? Just bad tempered?

C

[David Hare-Scott]

Not early fall, early summer. East coast Australia, north of Newcastle. Red-bellied black snakes are quite deadly but not bad tempered. We also have eastern brown snakes: deadly, fast and bad tempered. It's a nice place but you must have respect for the locals.

David

[Dioclese]

Very small elevated plot is has been inundated by Bermuda grass. I was fighting it all season, gave up a couple months ago. Was self-inflicted. Seeded the exterior border with Bermuda to keep the soil from seeping out the cracks between the timbers. Giving the area back to mother nature seems my only recourse. Dave

[Cheryl Isaak]

Aha - that explains all - there is a red bellied snake in the US, not poisonous and "one of the good guys".

Have a great summer!

C

[rachael simpson]

We have red bellied moccasins, but no one considers them a "good guy" around here!!

BTW, my "garden" is finally a soggy mess! It has been raining here since around 4 this afternoon. The garden is also covered in hay and horse & cow you-know-what, as we relocated the corral for a bit. Will use a different area come spring. Glad for the rain, but would like to see a bit of snow before winter is over. Very thankful for the rain right now though!

~Rae

[CK]

Fuck off.

[Janet Baraclough]

The message from rachael simpson contains these words:

It's been raining hard every day since September here :-) There is serious concern that grass lawns (and golfcourses) will not withstand such soggy conditions indefinitely; they are permanently swamped. When I walk on the lawn, water spurts up and I can hear the ground sucking. An excuse to make more and bigger beds for plants. The last three days without rain are the first dry spell in months, so I planted Pink Charm daffodils yesterday (they have been waiting for months; better late than never). Although the weather has been exceptionally wet, windy (and dark due to heavy cloud cover), it hasn't been cold down at sea-level (we have only had two very short slight frosts;though we could see snow on the mountain tops last week,). Fuchsias, hydrangeas and large-flowered hebes, are still flowering; the last watsonia s are just fading. Winter-flowering mahonia is almost over and the hellebores are opening. I have several bird feeding stations with nuts, seeds and fat put out, which are fluttering with small birds all day long. Some are carrying small sticks and feathers around, thinking about nests? In December?!!

Because we have a long winter here, I designed this seaside garden to have interesting plant structure all year round. The tall miscanthus are just 8ft skeletons now, the wind has whipped off all the leaves, but they still look striking against the dense evergreen mounds and humps of ceanothus, azalea, gorse, griselinea, euphorbia, and jaggy outlines of cordyline . I've trimmed off the lower leaves of bamboo clumps to show off the golden stems. The handsome leaves of phormium are still lovely in many colours (red, purple, green, near-black, variegated cream and green).

Myrtle and Pittosporum (in assorted colours) are just a modest "back line of the chorus" plant in summer but in winter one can appreciate the small handsome leaves, subtly pink-spotted green, white and green spotted, and some of them puckered at the edges. Coprosmas are beautiful in winter; every tiny leaf looks burnished to a high shine, catching the light, and the cool temperature intensifies their colour. One of my favourites is an intense apricot, and another is a deep shiny chocolate brown-purple colour.

Winter work ; to reduce wind-rocking during gales, I've pruned back a lot of summer growth on shrubs and laid rocks near stems; had a big bonfire. High winds bring a harvest of seaweed to the beaches and a winter task between rains is collecting it to mulch the entire garden.In new year I will dig out the home-made compost heaps and spread that around too.

Janet ( west Scotland)

[Billy]

That you again Geoff-consulting forester from Osceola county (just South of Cadillac), Michigan? There are all kinds of jerks and you must include all of them. You know where you can go and what you can do.

[MFLyons]

A half dozen or more of the orchid plants hanging from the oak trees are in bloom, 3 different colors of Christmas cactus add their hues, as do the hibiscus shrubs. Plenty of oranges still on the tree. But the grass is looking a bit brown with the watering restrictions and the colder weather. (Central Florida)

[Cheryl Isaak]

Grumble, I'm coming to visit. Another 10 inches of snow this AM

[enigma]

Cheryl Isaak wrote in news:C38AF081.868DD% [e-mail]:

how can you tell, it's blowing so much! lee